Innovative solutions, great successes

Interview with Lars Habermacher, athletics trainer and projectmanager at OYM AG

Lars Habermacher, athletics trainer and project manager at OYM AG, gives us an insight into the exciting world of elite sport in this exclusive interview. OYM, as a competence centre for outstanding athletic performance, has developed two innovative and efficient applications with soxes AG that enrich and optimise OYM’s training and scientific areas. The collaboration has always focussed on the individual requirements of the athletes.

soxes: Hello Lars, what does “OYM” stand for?

Lars Habermacher: “OYM” stands for “On Your Marks”. The name is no coincidence. As a centre of excellence for top-class sport, we want nothing less than to lead sporting talent to the top of the world in the long term. The OYM wants to offer new opportunities for Swiss elite sport and set new standards.

What values does OYM stand for?

Sports visionary Hans-Peter Strebel, together with muscle physiologist Marco Toigo, has created a place where athletes can develop their potential individually and comprehensively on the basis of the latest scientific findings. The targeted, systematic further development of athletes’ individual athletic potential is based on the four OYM core competences: OYM Athletic Training, OYM Athletic Health Management, OYM Nutrition and OYM Research & Development. Scientifically sound and individualised support for athletes is the decisive factor for success.

What does OYM offer athletes and sportspeople?

At OYM, athletes can train at the highest level with optimal support. However, the uniqueness of the centre lies in the data-supported fusion of the four core competencies of Athletic Training, Athlete Health Management, Nutrition and Research & Development.

To what extent does science play a role here?

To get athletes to the top of the world in the long term, OYM takes a unique approach and combines OYM’s core competences with scientific expertise and digital know-how.

What goals does OYM pursue?

OYM’s key success factor is the scientifically sound and individualised support of athletes. Two goals are always pursued: Firstly, the maximisation of training adaptations. The second is to maximise sport-specific performance.

What role does nutrition play – how can OYM provide support here?

Nutrition is one of the four core competences from which OYM athletes benefit. Their nutrition is based on the latest findings and is tailored to the individual needs and training and competition performance of the athletes. The focus of the innovative OYM nutritional concept is on optimising the adaptation processes triggered during training, maximising competitive performance and improving and maintaining health in the long term. All scientists and chefs are focussed on the quality and preparation of food.

Which success story do you particularly remember?

There is certainly Ricky Petrucciani’s European Championship silver medal (400m sprint) and Noé Roth’s last season (aerials), who became world champion and overall World Cup winner. But there were also many small success stories of individual athletes, which may not (yet) have led to medals, although great personal development was evident.

We appreciate the solution-orientated approach of soxes. Knowing that someone is there for us practically around the clock allows us to work calmly and creates a lot of trust.
Lars Habermacher, Projectmanager OYM AG

What advantages do the applications developed in collaboration with soxes offer in everyday use? Let’s start with the OYM Planner.

The OYM Planner supports all Science employees in planning training schedules and appointments. Since 2022, it has also been used in the Science department to plan resources for employees in the individual core areas. By using the Planner, we can now digitise the entire science planning process in a single application.

How does the second app – the OYM Builder – work and how is it used efficiently by the coaches when designing training programmes?

The athletics coaches use the OYM Builder to create individually tailored training programmes for athletes. The basis for this is an exercise catalogue containing over 2000 exercises from which the athletic trainers can select the exercises for a training programme. Thanks to the flexible design of the application, this exercise catalogue can be expanded and supplemented at any time, so that there is no barrier if an exercise has never been used before.

What does the OYM team value most about working with soxes?

What we particularly appreciate about working with soxes is the quick response time and the solution-orientated approach if any problems arise. Knowing that someone is there for us practically around the clock allows us to work calmly and creates a lot of confidence that our concerns will be dealt with promptly.

Are there any other joint projects planned?

We are working on another application that will support our scientific staff in storing, processing and visualising the research data we collect at the OYM. This is the main focus at the moment. What comes next is still up in the air.

Thank you very much for the interview!